Here’s why 42,000 people have seen daylight for the first time in 49 days
People in a Norwegian city woke up to daylight for the first time in 49 days.
Tromsø, Norway, is located 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, which means it experiences extreme light variations in both winter and summer.
In the winter, the city experiences the Polar Night, where the city’s 42,000 residents do not see daylight between the end of November and middle of January.
ITV weatherman Chris Page tweeted about the news on X and wrote: ‘After 49 days of darkness, today the people of Tromsø, Norway will see the sun for the first time since the 26th November.
‘A total of 54 minutes of daylight for them today as the polar night comes to an end for another year.’
It is good news for the city going forward because from this day on the days will begin to get longer again.
The other end of the extreme then happens between May and July called the Midnight Sun – when the sun never sets.
Then after the Midnight Sun, the days start to get shorter again until the Polar Night arrives in November and so the cycle continues.
During the Polar Night, the sky is mostly dark, with a purple and blue glow known as blåtime (blue hour) around midday.
The winter months also provide the opportunity for locals and visitors to see the aurora in the city.
Other areas in the world also experience the Polar Night – such as Svalbard, which is dark for almost four months of the year.
Despite the dark nights in the winter, research has shown that residents in the city have lower rates of wintertime depression.
This means that locals in Tromsø experience less wintertime depression in comparison to warmer and more brighter southern locations.
The city itself is a tiny island, roughly the same size as Manhattan and is the second-most populated city north of the Arctic Circle after Murmansk, Russia, which has a population of 270,000.
The landscape around the city is beautiful as well – surrounded by fjords and mountains as far as you can see.
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